----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynnet Bannion"
> Have a nice day :-).  Sometimes I get discouraged.
> Time for something more cheerful.  Ray?
>
How about a joke;)

If a married couple from Arkansas move out of state and then get
divorced - are they still brother and sister?

According to DNA studies the most distantly related one can be to any
other human is 11th cousins.  This is due to a population pinch
estimated to have occurred 77,000 ago resulting in all humans having
descendent from about 2,000 people who were the sole humans at that
time.  Interestedly George W. Bush and John Kerry ( a multi-millionaire
and a billionaire who both went to Yale)have been reported to be 11th
cousins sharing an ancestor in the 17th or 18th century when both had
2000 great(x11) grandparents and shared one pair of ancestors.

Stephen Budiansky points out in his book "The Truth about Dogs" that
humans are perhaps the least genetically diverse mammal species on
earth.  Even dogs of the same breed ( poodles, German
shepherds,salukis) chosen at random have far less in common genetically
than even the most distantly related humans. Human populations who are
disinclined to mate outside of their own small groups ( Mennonites,
Jews, isolated islanders, isolated racist populations in the Ozarks)
have far less genetic diversity than that shared by 11th cousins -
resulting in these populations being studied for inherited disorders
of which they have a lot.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin"
www.NeanderThin.com